India

Indian telecom hardware company Tejas Networks is just a few steps away from its IPO, having filed a draft prospectus with the market regulator more than eight years after first proposing the idea of going public.

Indian school textbook publisher S Chand and Co has begun pre-marketing its IPO, which comprises primary and secondary equity.

The list of investors that came aboard a $69m loan for Air India has been revealed. The company launched general syndication in October and brought in new lenders at the end of last year.

Most of Asia's equity capital markets were still waking up from the post-holiday slumber this week but bankers in India were on their toes, with IPO activity in the country continuing apace.

The Reserve Bank of India is giving lenders a helping hand when it comes to paying coupons on their additional tier one debt, by allowing them to dip into their statutory reserves. Although the flexibility on coupon payments is beneficial, weaker banks will still struggle to come offshore for capital. Addison Gong reports.

At 8:15pm on November 8, Indian prime minister Narendra Modi stunned the country by announcing in an unscheduled television broadcast that at midnight Rs500 ($7.50) and Rs1,000 ($15) banknotes would be “demonetised”.

The Indian government has offloaded 2% of its stake in ITC, the country’s largest cigarette maker, raising Rp67bn ($995.2m) and coming closer to its divestment target for the financial year, according to a banker on the deal.

The Indian Green Bonds Market Development Council, a public-private initiative, launched its 2017 programme on Tuesday to build the country's green debt market to meet national climate objectives.

India’s Neerg Energy sold a $475m green bond on Monday — the second green dollar transaction from Asia this year. The deal introduced a new structure to the market, but investors’ concerns were allayed by the issuer’s robust credit story.

Genesis Colors, which owns luxury Indian brands Satya Paul and Bwitch, has secured approval from the country’s market regulator to go public via a Rp6.5bn ($96.5m) IPO.

India is aiming for a record Rp725bn ($10.8bn) in divestment proceeds in the new financial year starting April. But it is no secret that these are targets the government is unlikely to meet, with the country having consistently over promised and under delivered. Ambition is admirable, but it is time the government got realistic.

Power companies were at the forefront of the international market on Monday, with India’s Neerg Energy and Indonesia’s Bukit Makmur Mandiri Utama launching high yield dollar deals.